Kolb: Don’t need a Constitutional amendment for 2012

Several good-government advocacy groups gathered a small cadre of legislators to announce a new umbrella group to push for independent redistricting, soon.

They ended up denouncing a plan by Senate Republicans to vote on a bill today that would amend the Constitution to change the redistricting process. This could not be enacted until 2013 at the very earliest, after lines are drawn for five cycles worth of elections starting in 2012.

“I think just from a pure, 2012 perspective, we can’t get a Constitutional amendment done now, so we’re going to have to do that legislatively, if we can at all,” he told the Times Union. He affirmed that this method is legal, which some Senate Republicans have questioned.

“I know that they say they would prefer to do it from a Constitutional perspective, and I don’t disagree with that, it’s the preferred way to go,” Kolb said. “I think for this particular cycle only, we should try to get a non-partisan redistricting bill that I think will pass muster. Do I think it’s possible? Yes, but that’s only if everybody’s interested in making it happen.”

Others at the press conference had harsher words.

“A proposal that doesn’t take effect for 11 years is a dodge,” said Sen. Mike Gianaris, D-Queens.

“The opportunity to drive a stake through the heart of the Dracula redistricting we’ve experienced all these years is now: the sunlight’s on, the pressure’s on, the governor has committed to a veto of the lines if next year the legislature passes it their normal way,” said Blair Horner, legislative director for the New York Public Interest Research Group. “I would think from a legislative perspective it’s far better to pass it this year then watch a veto and watch it go to the courts.”

Below, a letter sent by ex-New York City Mayor Ed Koch to Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos and Sen. John Bonacic, the sponsor of the Constitutional amendment.